Show-Biz Shocker in San Juan

For more than 20 years, Luis Vigoreaux and Lydia Echevarria ranked as Puerto Rico's leading husband-and-wife show biz team -he as the island's top TV game-show host, she as his co-host and a favorite soap-opera actress. Then, early last year, their lives went awry. The couple were on the verge of divorcing, and Vigoreaux was planning to marry a younger woman. On Jan. 17 his charred body, which showed at least eleven stiletto-type stab wounds, was discovered stuffed in the trunk of his red Mercedes-Benz on the outskirts of San Juan.

Last week Secretary of Justice Nelson Martinez Acosta announced orders to arrest four people for murdering Vigoreaux. The stunning news: Echevarria was one of them. Acting on "motives of passion," Martinez charged, Echevarria offered a three-man contract-murder team more than $25,000 to do away with her husband. One of the deal's stipulations, the Secretary said, was that the hired team torture the victim before killing him. The trio brought along a fourth member to act as driver; he agreed to testify for the state in return for immunity from prosecution. Echevarria, who spent two nights in jail before posting a bond of $56,800, was cheered by fellow inmates on her release. She has not commented on the charges.